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therefore inability.
I wrote hurriedly, representing my
I respectfully
submit to Your
Excellency and the Council that so far
I had done no
wrong.
off the Government was not satisfied.
with my
letter of this instant, I submit that
I should then have been called upon for explanation, and if that had been
unsatisfactory it was
open to the Acting
Governor to issue a positive order
for me to do the work, the Government taking
the consequences. If the
Acting Governor, after being acquainted with all the circumstances of
the case, had given
a positive order,
refusal on my part might then have been followed by the present charges. As it is, I have been placed in this position
by my own, and without any wish of mine or any opportunity of avoiding it: His Excellency immediately on receipt of my letter of Saturday 7th charged me
with insubordination and disobedience of orders.
I wish to dwell upon the fact that these charges have been formulated with undue haste, and that if the Government had been more deliberate they
would never have been preferred.
The action of the Government subsequent to the 8th when the charges
were made, I
have not been able to understand, and I
submit that when lying
under these charges the action
of the Government towards me should have been clear and
unmistakable, and I should have been left in no doubt as to what was intended.
From the 8th when charged with disobedience, until the 20th when the decision of the Council
was communicated
I believed, and I had a right to believe, that my explanation would be satisfactory.
At the least, during this period, while the matter was in suspense, and the question "sub judice"
His Excellency informed Dr Ayres that I had been ordered...